Noosa!

While Janelle was here, we wanted to do some traveling, so we bought tickets up to Brisbane and decided to rent a car to drive to Noosa. Unfortunately, if you've watched the news, you know there has been widespread flooding that has really damaged the area. (See interactive map of the damages here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm) Because of this, unfortunately our weekend was a little bit wet, though we were able to take a beautiful hike on Saturday, when the rains stopped and it was just overcast. On the hike we actually saw a wild koala in a tree! However we were going to go hold a koala, a baby wombat and pet a tiger at the Australia zoo, but that had to be sidelined. The rains were so bad that when we were driving back to the airport, there were some really scary times when we lost total visibility of the road. Initially, when I flew in (I flew on a separate flight than the rest of the girls because this flight put me over so I am now a silver level Qantas frequent flyer) when we were coming in for a landing, the plane was rocking back and forth so violently, I was petrified. We were about to land when all of a sudden I heard all of the engines fire up again and we lifted back up into the air. After the longest two minutes ever, the captain came over the loudspeaker and said "well, that was exciting" and explained they had lost visibility upon landing. Fortunately everything worked out and I survived.

New Years Eve

Nanny Ree, I am so sorry it is taking me so long to get posts up. Things have been pretty hectic around here so I feel the best way to tell you what has been going on is through pictures. These are from New Years Eve. My friend from San Francisco, Janelle, came to visit her friend, (who incidentally was also named Emily and lives here) and we all went to the Doltone house for New Years. There was a 5 course meal, an open bar and a live band (and children). All of which made the whole night feel a bit like a wedding where you knew no one, but regardless it was fun. The main reason we chose this venue was because it had a spectacular view to watch the fireworks. I will say, I thought I was over being able to be impressed by fireworks but Sydney knows how to put on a show. There were fireworks off of the entire harbour bridge, two sets of identical fireworks on either side, and then fireworks off of the tops of buildings leading up to the harbour bridge. Pretty outstanding. Anyway, enjoy!